Musings of a Work at Home Mom

Musings of a Work at Home Mom

This is a Guest Post Written By The Wife. The Wife also writes at After The Alter

I have always loved working from home. Although sometimes challenging, working from home has allowed me many luxuries that people who work outside of the home don’t have. Don’t get me wrong, I do sometimes miss the camaraderie of an office, but how many people can say that they can work sometimes in their pajamas? I’d say not many!

Some people have asked me if I have ever considered renting office space. The honest answer is no! With how is it is to communicate in today’s world, there really has never been a need. Who needs the extra overhead when I can easily answer calls, e mails and faxes from my own home.

I have to admit that with the addition of our child my office space has become a bit cramped. My office, which once was in our second bedroom, has now been moved to the first floor. I now share my office space with a living room couch and my Husband’s Fisht tank! What was once a closet filled with work items, now has become a store all of children’s items. Luckily, I don’t spend much sitting at my desk, so the move hasn’t affected me TOO much.

The main challenge of working from home is making sure to actually do my job. You can easily become distracted, especially now that my son takes up most of my time. I doubt most people could handle the responsibility of working from home. I guess I am just the special sort who can.

I will be honest and say it’s not for everyone. What works for me may not work for everyone else. Also, my main focus is on being a mom these days. My work has now come secondary. It’s great and I love it. Yay for being a work at home mom/wife!

32 Comments

I agree. It can be a juggling act to meet work obligations and to take care of children at home, but for the most part I enjoy it. I am also glad to not be forking out the $1,800 it would cost to have two children in daycare. That in itself is worth me quitting my job.

ahh I wish I had some tips! lol My son is a horrible napper, but when he does nap I try to do things then. Thats why the housework never gets done! lol Alot of my customers know I have a son too, so they don’t mind if they hear him in the background. Plus I have my blackberry, so I can return calls and e mails if I am out. The only thing that is suffering is my face to face time with customers. I have to figure that part out better…

It’s not always easy but well worth the effort. I have worked from home for the past 25 years while mothering 4 boys and I wouldn’t change a thing! I work in my PJ’s so much I started blogging about it

One of my friend’s daughters runs a business from her home. She started it when she was pregnant with her first child. She has a contract with the state for early childhood intervention and has roughly 60-70 field people working for her.

I, too love working from home. The hours spent in preparing to go to work and commuting can be spent working already. I don’t have to deal with traffic and office politics. Since my kids are older, my biggest challenge now is fighting loneliness since I spend many hours with just the computer for company and I need to get out every once in while in the real world.

Hi There! It’s nice to hear from a fellow work-from-home wife. Like you said, the hardest part is really making sure you’re focusing on the task at hand and not letting yourself get distracted. Good job on keeping focused and getting things accomplished.

Although I do miss the office team environment from time to time, there’s really no going back for me. And, yes, working at home can be a challenge with interruptions and those household things that wait for me. But, being my own boss and the freedom I have are well worth the relatively minor shortcomings associated with working from home…on my own business. Terry

I have been surprised how effective working at home is. It is true I can be distracted. But I find it much less distracting than being in an office. I work at home some days and at the office the others. And this gives me the benefits of both. If I had to choose one, I think working at home full time would be better. It depends on the job and person. Some jobs, and people, can be fully one way or the other and for many a combination works well.

I say all the time that if you actually calculated the amount of actual “work” a person in an office does, you’d see it’s not that much! Between chatting, surfing the web and other distractions I bet the actual “work” day is minimal! lol

I hear ya on the distractions. I get up really early and get work done, get some work done a bit during the day and get back at it when the munchkins go to sleep. I could use a chef, maid, wife….anything to make it easier though LOL. ~Cheryl 🙂

I hear you. I don’t have a baby (YET!!), but between working from home full time and taking care of the ranch with my husband, there are days when sitting in front of the computer just seems like the least of my concerns. I’ve found, though, that the biggest trick is just to make myself go sit down and start. No matter how much I’d rather be doing other things, once I get going, I absolutely LOVE my job!! 🙂

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